MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 43 



The conditions under which life exists in the deep sea 

 are very remarkable. The pressure due to the weight of water 

 is enormous, and amounts roughly to a ton on the square 

 inch for every thousand fathoms ; so that at 5,000 fathoms 

 the pressure is about 5 tons, that is, between seven and eight 

 hundred times as great as the 15 lbs. on the square inch we 

 are accustomed to at sea level. On one occasion we are told 

 that Mr. Buchanan, the Chemist to the Expedition, hermeti- 

 cally sealed up a thick glass tube, wrapped it in flannel, and 

 enclosed it in a wide copper tube with perforated ends, and 

 then lowered the whole to a depth of 2,000 fathoms and hauled 

 it up, when it was found that the copper tube was flattened 

 by the pressure, and the glass tube inside the flannel was 

 reduced to a fine powder like snow. This process was referred 

 to by Sir Wyville Thomson as an " implosion," the converse 

 of an explosion. The most delicate animals, however, are 

 able to exist under these enormous pressures, as their tissues 

 are permeated by fluids under the same pressure, and are 

 consequently supported equally on the inside and the outside. 

 It is only when some animal is brought up too suddenly from 

 a great depth to the surface that the release of pressure has 

 a disastrous effect. Some fishes arrive with their eyes burst 

 out of their heads, their scales forced off, and other parts of 

 the body horribly distorted. 



The temperature in these great depths is at or about 

 freezing point ; and, as the sunlight probably only penetrates for 

 a few hundred fathoms, there must be total darkness with 

 the exception of occasional dim, ghostly glimmers of light 

 given out by phosphorescent animals. 



Moseley gives an amusing account of their tame and 

 somewhat dilapidated parrot who, from his perch on one of 

 the wardroom hat-pegs, talked away constantly and amused 

 them during the whole voyage. His great triumph, we are 

 told, was frequently to repeat, " What ! 2,000 fathoms and 

 no bottom ! Ah, Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S. ! " 



